"Hiphop must also be seen as a way to actualize the
aspects of ourselves that we block out constantly; a way to
overcome fear and our ego, a way for us to enjoy all that life
has to offer."

"Being Hiphop is attained from practicing the
elements in a transformative way, to the point where you come to
the conclusion that there is no difference between my inside and
outside worlds, they are the same."

Hip Hop. Hate it? Love it? It's spiritual.
It's nondual. And nondualty is not only for white 50-somethings.
Nonduality has a significant, smart, and growing youth
awareness. What better way to show what nonduality's about than
through the extremely influential form of music and culture known
as hip hop? The article included is unedited. You'll find
uncorrected spelling errors, or maybe they're supposed to be
there: I don't totally understand the whole hip hop thing.

In any case, Toto, I don't think we're in Tiruvannamalai
anymore.

--Jerry

The Art of Being Hiphop pt.1

by J-Who Worldwise the Sun of Hiphop

Whenever writing about a subject like spirituality you have to
be careful. Everyone's got their own
opinions, as well as their own fears about what it is they think
they do or don't know. Personally
I feel obligated to report on truth that goes beyond our feelings
of fear and opinion by putting
out into the air what many have known to be true across many
different traditions. That way if you
don't believe me you can go and look for yourselves. Combining
Hiphop with spirituality brings up
more fear and terror for people, because just like the world of
religion and spirituality, (which
are two different things) people cling to their reference point
whether it be the infamous
arguements between the positivists and negativists camps, or the
underground vs. mainstream feud
where both sides im afriad to say, fail to fully express Hiphop
Kulture all together.

DEL: tha funkee homosapien

Hopefully this article will both enlighten and scare the shit
out of most of you as well as illicit responses
of hate, confusion and thanks. Perhaps we should start with an
discussion of what is Hiphop. The
most commonly thought of definition would go something like
"an urban form of musical expression
that combines rhythmic wordplay and repetitive beats...".
Hiphop is most commonly thought of as
music, and I can't blame anyone for saying so. That's what's
mostly out there, people using Hiphop
as a medium for having a good time and making money. Other adepts
would say something like " a
worldwide counterculture that containins its own language, rules,
and unique forms of expression
etc. that emphasizes individuality and anti mainstream values
that serve to act as a voice for
disenfranchised youth". That's true too. People all over the
world use Hiphop as a means of not
just having a voice, but for political activism and creating
awareness of a variety of social
issues. Another group of adherents would say Hiphop is something
that cannot be defined, it is the
essence of us, "I AM HIPHOP", it is the way that
"God" speaks through and to us. All three of these
definitions are correct. None of them alone can accurately
describe Hiphop. Spirituality seems to
fit the third definition, but lets look first one of the more
commmon definitions of spirituality.
Many believe spirituality refers to the quality of ones
relationship with the essence of all
existence, spirit. Religion is one of the practices of ataining
that relationship, but whatever it
is we practice can bring us to a deeper understanding of reality.
No matter where we are in our
spiritual life we can all have glimpses into our deepest selves
because spirit is everpresent. It
was there before time. So spirituality can be present at any
level of anyones understanding of
Hiphop Kulture. However it makes it very hard to express
authentic spirituality when wrapped up in
a merely egotistical (definition 1) or ethnocentric worldview
(definition 2) because both of those
views are about either "I" or "We"; both
points miss the mark of "Us" or spirit which is the
whole(definition 3). Definition 3 is the way that most do not
look at Hiphop and if they do it is
purely a mental association, so why should we care? Spirituality
has not only been denied in Hiphop

Kool Keith

Kulture but around the world in all disciplines. Many in the
fields of biology, medicine,
psychology etc. have dismissed the existence of primordial
essence. At the same time human beings
all throughout time have developed ways to go about reaching this
seemingly invisible essence and
make it a part of their lives, because it provides them with more
fullfillment than anything in the
strictly material world ever could. People believe in what the
consensus says is legitimate;
anything else isn't real, but if you look at the consensus,
everyone looks like they hate
themselves or that their ego's are so out of control as to one
day lead to their untimely demise.
Ultimately the reason why it is important to look at how
spirituality and Hiphop connect is because
spirit is both the Ground and the Goal of everything, meaning
everything starts and ends with
spirit. It is the alpha and omega state of everything all the
time, therefore if we as Hiphoppers
act shortsighted in the spiritual area, we in essence are
foregoing our destinies as Hiphoppers by
relegating ourselves to the lower aspects of our existence. We
are the cause of our own suffering
even when from the inside we have the yearning to be greater than
weve ever seen ourselves. Before
I go on, I would like to say that the elements of Hiphop are a
practice just as much as law is a
practice or martial arts is a practice or being a father is a
practice. In all practices there are
lower areas of existence i.e. the law student, white belt or
missing father and there are higher
areas i.e. supreme court judge, 10th degree black belt and the
everpresent father. The question
then becomes if Hiphop is my practice then what the fuck am I
doing it for? Money, the community,
consciousness? All three? Hiphop is really about figuring out
where you are in its spectrum of
consciousness. You can make the decision to either regress to
lower levels of its expression for
selfish reasons, stay where you are, or transcend your fear of
losing what you think of as your
"self" and search for a deeper meaning to your
expression. Unfortunately in our Kulture many are
blind to what their doing (usually with their music) and like
swinging a machete in the dark, end
up hurting other people, usually themselves. Hiphop is powerful,
but it does not have the power to
hurt. It is us being blind to the elements of Hiphop as a
practice and not a way of life.
Practicing anything is just one aspect of your life, but you
can't call yourself that practice. You
could say that your an emcee, but you'd be lying if you were a
doctor or someone's son, or an
activist. All those things are practices in order to improve your
current state of being. Being
Hiphop is attained from practicing the elements in a
transformative way, to the point where you
come to the conclusion that there is no difference between my
inside and outside worlds, they are
the same. When the b-boy fully imbraces the world the highs and
the lows; When the categories are

Mos

all reconciled and accepted, then life and art become
synnonymous. Mos said it the best, whatever
you are doing Hiphop is doing. The reason why people die in
Hiphop Kulture is because they don't
see that they must treat it as more than just a practice to make
money or for social improvement.
That is the artists curse. Hiphop will not save you or the
community, no more than the hand of God
will reach out of the sky and save you. Hiphop must also be seen
as a way to actualize the aspects
of ourselves that we block out constantly; a way to overcome fear
and our ego, a way for us to
enjoy all that life has to offer. A way for us to grab our
evolution by the reigns as my man Born
would say. For now im afraid that's not where we are, but we can
be. Practice makes perfect and
when we decide to use all of the elements as away to challenge
ourselves, to look at the full
reality of our experiences, we will find much more functionality
and fullfillment in what it is
that we call Being Hiphop. Next time...what would the Practice of
Being Hiphop look like?

~ ~ ~

J-Who Worldwise the Sun of Hiphop is a Buddhist
practitioner, family counselor and the head of
Hiphop Alive: Institute of Education, Consciousness and Integral
Music